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Managing Emergencies: The Challenges of the Future

Emergency Planning

What does all this mean for Britain? If we look at major emergencies in the UK over the last 25 years or so, there have been significant deficiencies in the response in just about every case. The real problem is that the British emergency planning, management and response system is fragmented and incomplete.

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The United Kingdom's National Risk Register - 2023 Edition

Emergency Planning

The new version presents 89 major hazards and threats that could potentially disrupt life in the United Kingdom and possibly cause casualties and damage. It makes sense to enunciate the major risks that a country faces so that all citizens can be clear about what needs to be tackled in terms of threats to safety and security in the future.

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Cities, Cultural Heritage and the Culture of Responding to Floods

Emergency Planning

In 2021 a colleague who studies natural hazards wrote to me that "our institute is all but destroyed and colleagues have lost their homes". Each new disaster reveals the shortcomings of hazard mitigation and disaster preparedness. First of all, we need a change in culture towards something more inclusive and more serious.

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Reflections on the Turkish-Syrian Earthquakes of 6th February 2023: Building Collapse and its Consequences

Emergency Planning

How much simpler to attribute it all to anonymous forces within the ground! It was notable that, in many buildings that pancaked in Turkey and Syria, the collapses left almost no voids at all, thanks to the complete fragmentation of the entire structure. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 15: 931-945. Ecemis, S.Z.

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A Proposed Strategy to Advocate for Improved Civil Protection in the United Kingdom

Emergency Planning

The lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic, alas largely negative, show that a good civilian system designed to protect the public against major hazards and threats can save thousands of lives and billions in losses and wasted expenditure. 1] The best solution to this problem is to promote inclusiveness in emergency preparedness at all levels.

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Foresight

Emergency Planning

A principle of cascading disasters is that the world is ever more closely linked by networks on which we all depend for communications, commerce, enlightenment and entertainment. It is obvious that military instability is likely to complicate and retard the process of getting natural hazard impacts under control.

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The 2019 Global Assessment Report (GAR)

Emergency Planning

It could be argued that political decision making is the greatest barrier of all to successful disaster risk reduction. Unofficial voices have suggested that the 'cure to damage ratio' for natural hazards is 1:43. Notably, the GAR has finally come around to the view that we all bear the burden of reducing disaster risk.